Babette C wrote:Thanks guys! Speaking of drama, let's see what happens when Danann finds that the file she stole from sickbay is encrypted and dna locked.. as are all of the files related to Kette. Fun times...

The single word reverberated through the speakers in sickbay, causing everyone who heard it to stop in their tracks. Several of the patients, the ones who were awake.. screamed or gasped in fear.

Isabelle looked up wide-eyed from her duties in caring for the Herald's captain, who was at that moment thankfully still out cold. “What the holy hell was that?" Her own voice was shaking. From what she understood, it had something to do with the biomatter that had now taken over the Herald which was currently morphing into something. And apparently, that something now had a voice.

A message blinked on the console on the wall. Isabelle called it up with trembling fingers. The video that had played on the Bridge a few minutes earlier now showed on her screen. A writhing pulsing wall of flesh was turning into a hand.. and and arm.. and a face. She turned it off quickly in horrified disgust."Well, now I think I know what that voice was..." she said softly to one of her colleagues who was standing next to her.

Dr. Duval just gave a her wide-eyed nod. "And that could explain why half of these patients are catatonic..."

"Yeah.. I'd say so.. That thing could give even a Gorn nightmares.." she half-joked. Although, she had a feeling she would be having nightmares herself tonight..if there was time for sleep.

"Duval, try to get some of these patients to calm down or at least say something coherent. Lyon's on his way down here to talk to them. I need to have a look at the files that Ops sent me."

"Yes, Doctor."

From what she could hear of the bridge conversation, coupled with the voice over the speakers, the thing that was awakening was now aware, and able to control the Herald. Isabelle scrolled through the new information from the Bridge, the horror of the thing that was in the EMH's video transmission fresh in her mind. If Hamlet was right, whatever they found would be far worse than a war, or a plague; or anything they had faced so far. If left unchecked it could destroy anything it came across. They had to find a way to defeat it while it was still contained to the Herald, before it infected other ships. Or worse, spread to other worlds...

The turbolift chimed, doors sliding open as it arrived at the correct deck. Isabelle stepped through the doors into the corridor, two warm mugs of tea in her hands, narrowly avoiding a pack of cadets who rushed past her on their way to night duty. Vitro had gone missing shortly after they had arrived at the asteroid field, and she hadn't seen Soule since the end of the battle with the thing that had taken over the Herald, more than a day ago. She assumed he was working; probably searching for Vitro, but after several attempts to contact him, she was getting worried. At the very least, she thought he might like some company. After passing several corridors and skirting around a science lab, the astrogation office, and the secondary warp core shaft, she finally found his workshop door; she shuffled the two mugs into one hand, and knocked with the other.

A few rumbles could be heard from inside at first, then silence for a long while, before the door slid a third of the way open. "I...I...Izzy?" Soule's eyes squinted at the light of the corridor. "W...w...w...what are you doing here?" He opened the door the rest of the way.

"I mean.... ummm..." He rubbed his face. He looked disoriented and tired; as if far longer than a day had passed. "C...come in." He tried mustering a smile.

"Hi, love." Isabelle stepped over the threshold into his workshop, letting her eyes adjust to the lowered light levels. She handed him one of the mugs, kissing him on the cheek. "How's it going? Any luck with finding Vitro?"

He shook his head, looking down at his feet and away from Izzy. He didn't feel he deserved a kiss, or tea, or a break, and his face couldn't hide that fact. "Lemme get you a chair. I'm sorry about the mess." He apologised, despite the fact that the room was pretty much spotless; his desk and consoles, three lounge chairs and a few design schematics on the walls, were all that occupied his workshop.

He pulled out one of the lounge chairs for her.

"Your office looks fine.. better than mine on a good day.." she gave him a quick smile, trying to cheer him up a little bit. His disorientation, along with his exhausted demeanor and refusing Tea - which for him, was very serious - made her think that her concern for him hadn't been misplaced. She took the seat, casting an eye over him as she sat down. The effects of Vitro's disappearance clearly showed in the sad, worn look on his face.

"Not much luck, huh.."

"Nothing." He slumped down to the floor, leaning his head against his desk. "I've looked over his diagnostic history, read his personal logs; there's no indication anything was wrong with his matrix. For want of a better phrase, he was in perfect health... and it has me paranoid. I've disconnected my private database from the main computer, fortified defensive subroutines and erected a security field around this room."

He reached out and grabbed her hand for comfort. "All I know for a fact, is that he is not on board."

She nodded, her face reflecting his pain. Soule had created Vitro, and put much of himself into his creation; he was like a part of Soule, and therefore special to her. Losing Vitro was like losing a member of the family. She slid the armchair back and knelt down next to Soule, clasping both of her hands around his, offering whatever comfort she could. "It sounds like you've been doing everything you can, but I'm here if you need a second pair of eyes."

"And I need to do more..." He kissed her hands, sighing deeply. "I'm glad you're here though." He lifted his head, looking into those sparkling blues of her's; giving him strength to pull out of the cloud of melancholy around him. "I'm not giving up."

"But enough about my problems, yeah." He finally broke a proper smile. "How's everything down in sickbay? I can imagine you've had a busy time of it."

"Well.." She sat next to him and leaned against his shoulder with a sigh, happy to see Soule's mood brightening some. "Yesterday I did two shifts in a row, took a break last night for dinner and promptly fell asleep in my office. Alot like you did probably.. " she winked at him. "Today was equally crazy, with all of the sickbays being full, and then I finally gave up an hour ago and decided to come find you. You weren't answering comms, so I tracked you down.."

"I'm sorry about that; I just got so damn caught up." He rubbed the bridge of his nose, as the long hours suddenly started catching up with him. "Sounds like a lucky thing I didn't go to bed last night, it'd've been very lonely." He grinned.

"Its weird to have you down here though... how did you even find it?" He asked curiously.

"I hope I didn't overstep, but I was starting to get worried when I didn't hear from you. I checked the Bridge, and our quarters, and when you weren't there, I had the computer locate you. I didn't expect you to be all the way down here though.."

He shook his head and smiled. "Of course not. I should have checked in, but after what we've seen last couple of days... I'd've been checking in every five minutes, didn't wanna be possessive or clingy. I'm told those are unattractive qualities, and I daren't question what Sasha knows on the subject."

"I'm glad you came down." He wrapped his arm around her, the smell of her hair lulling his eyes closed. "Its quiet down here, have half the section to myself; apparently there was a creature that ate Cardassian voles down here, scared the cadets to other areas of the deck."

She chuckled, nuzzling him. "Don't worry, I'd have forgiven you... but I will admit that's why I held off until this evening before going to look for you.. I had a feeling you were furiously working away somewhere and I didn't want to disturb you." She looked around the room, taking in the decor with all of the schematics on the walls. "Having a space to yourself is very important.. everyone needs somewhere where they can be with their own thoughts, to create or dream as they please. I like what you've done with it."

"Its... tidier than it was. I had lots of scrap metal in here, but some of it was a bit too damaged to be usefully salvaged, and I put the Eos model I was working on in storage for a bit; until I work out where to put it. I've this idea for everything since I first came aboard, and now I'm getting to the limit of what I can do to it."

"Ever since that job offer from Doctor Jens, I've been dreaming of the lab I could have. But that's a modification or a few dozen too far."

She had to think back. Jens was there shortly before the Vintaki mission, it felt like a month ago now, so much had happened since then. But it was probably much less time in reality. "Was Jens the guy looking at Vitro, from the Daystrom institute? I don't remember you mentioning a job offer.."

"Didn't I? Oh..." He sounded genuinely surprised at himself, and was worried she may be concerned about it. "Well... I think it was a job offer, but yeah, just after his evaluation. I was probably reading too much into it"

"Well, it was right around the time of the Vintaki mission, we were all a little distracted.. " She didn't blame him, it was a detail that would have easily been lost in the swirl of events that happened when Kette was on board. "But it would be quite an opportunity to work there. If you did, I could transfer to Starfleet Medical if we moved back to Earth.. I'd support you if you were to decide to do it." She smiled at him, not all that concerned about it. If life took them in that direction, she would go with the flow.

"But the bigger question is.. do you think Jens might have had something to do with Vitro disappearing?"

"Ah, I wouldn't ask you to do that... you're the Chief Medical Officer of a starship, you go out to all corners of the quadrant helping the sick; that's important. And you'll be Captain of your own medical ship one day soon." He smiled. "Plus, it doesn't matter where I do my work. They may have top of the line technology and facilities, but I can still do what they do here; it just takes me a bit longer sometimes."

His brow furrowed for a moment. "I hadn't considered that. And there's that that Bronson..." He took a deep breath.

She smiled back at him, wrapping her arms around his waist, shifting her back against the side of the desk as they sat on the room's carpet. "It would definitely be easier if you worked from here.. no one would have to move. I do have to say, it's much more exciting living on a starship." she winked. "I think we both would miss it.""So.. Hm, Bronson. I hadn't considered that either. I wasn't sure if he'd even gotten near Vitro.."

"Which is why I was never gonna take it. Things to do out here, people to adventure with." He nuzzled her shoulder, grinning. "And working from scratch with everything, means I can get creative. I even got a present out of our adventures - Wilbur the drone; who we managed to steal from Adria."

"But I have no idea if Bronson did cross paths with Vitro; I was caught up with Jens when Bronson first came aboard, so I dunno what his movements were. Perhaps... perhaps that isn't a coincidence." He sighed, unsure of any of the answers. "Gotta be less paranoid... but that Intel fleet as well... skulking around, what the hell was that about and why didn't they show up sooner and save 3 Cardassian ships."

"Gotta admit... this ship is exciting."

She chuckled.. "Wilbur the drone, I like it," she said, tilting her head up and kissing him. "So. I could do a microscan for DNA of the area where Vitro was last seen. It would prove whether or not Bronson was there at minimum, or anyone else that shouldn't have been there.." She reached up and massaged his shoulders, trying to soothe some of his tension away. "The problem is.." her brow furrowed. "How would we follow through, they're long gone by now.." She worked her way down his shoulder blades to his middle back. "If gives a lead though, it could be worth it.. anything's better than nothing," she concluded, kneading a particularly stubborn knot next to his spine.

Soule's eyes closed again, as the rhythm lulled and numbed him, his head slowly beginning to droop. "That actually sounds like a really good idea; guess which one of us took forensics then." He chuckled at her teasingly, the pace of his speech slowing as her hands continued to work out tension. "But finding DNA is definitely a start."

"I do... have... another avenue... to check." He sighed, feeling a pop in his back, causing him to slump ever further forward. "He was wearing a hat..."

"Thanks." she smiled. "It's amazing the amount of information you can get from just a molecule.." She continued massaging the muscles next to his spine, moving down to the small of his back, then up again, moving outwards to his ribcage.

"A hat..? Hm... I've never seen Vitro wearing a hat. Well.. aside from a helmet in combat training. That does seem strange.."

"It was a a party hat. It... could be a calling card or a signature; which is something hackers love to use, so people know it was them." He groaned as her fingers dug into tension he carried under his shoulder blades. "It's something I've never really understood, why hide in the shadows, if you're only gonna shout 'look at me'."

There was another popping sensation in his back, and he rested his hand on her knee and moaned a little at the feeling. He leant his head back to look at her behind, with tired yet lustful eyes. "You make it really hard to concentrate..."

Isabelle giggled. "Do I..?" She smiled at him innocently, pecking him on the lips. Her hands smoothed out the last of the knotted muscles and she wrapped her arms around him in a hug, leaning her cheek against his upper back."A party hat.. that it is really weird, even for Vitro. Could very well be another lead."

"You do..." He chuckled, leaning on her weight, playing with her hands around his chest. He closed his eyes again, sighing, taking in the warmth of her company. "And I'll take every potential lead I get."

He kissed her hand and turned around, looking into her eyes. "But, I'm far too tired to look into it now; and I'm sure you are." He gave a tired smile. "And possibly in need of dinner?"

"Dinner sounds really good." She smiled back; the mention of food reminded her that she too hadn't eaten in several hours. "That is, in fact, is one of the reasons I wanted to find you... And if I don't get off of this floor.." she suppressed a yawn.."I'm going to end up falling asleep down here.."

"Come on then." He pecked her on lips, and slowly stood up; easing Izzy to her feet, whilst acclimating himself to movement again. He noticed that he hadn't touched the tea she had brought him, and thought now was as good as any time to drink it. Much to his relief, it had retained some of it's heat; the quick release of caffeine reinvigorating him for a time.

He wrapped his arms around her, giggling to himself, before gently kissing along her shoulder and up her neck. "So what do you fancy, ma chérie?"

She grabbed her own mostly warm tea mug and sipped, thinking of the all important question of what to have for dinner. More importantly though, Soule was starting to get back to his normal self, which she was very happy about. She tilted her head towards his, kissing him as his lips travelled up her neck."Hm.. Just something simple. I'm not picky tonight. Surprise me." she smiled back.

"Yes ma'am. Although..." He nibbled her ear, and whispered softly. "The way you have me feeling, we could skip the main course, and go straight for dessert." He grinned. "But, that might be the massage talking."

"Mmm.. dessert first.." she whispered back, closing her eyes and shivering at the sensation. "Sounds good to me."

He pecked her on the cheek, and held out his arm. "After you, my love."

She took his arm and the pair of them made their way out of Soule's workshop to dinner, and dessert.. not necessarily in that order. The search for Vitro would begin again fresh tomorrow. And neither would be sleeping alone in their offices tonight.

11607.25The swirling slipstream on the Bridge viewscreen finally gave way to the star system where they would come into contact with the D'rell for the first time. Isabelle was excited, she had to admit, but also preferred to err on the side of cautious optimism. It had been three hundred years since Zephram Cochrane met with the Vulcans for the first time. To be there at the same point in this new civilisation's history was exhilarating. And she had pride that the Hyperion's crew had been chosen for this honour. But there was also trepidation. Would it go as well as the first contact with the Vulcans or would it be a near disaster like the Sentinel's encounter with the Guardians, or their battle with the biosynthetic enemy of the Tkon? She preferred to think that the outcome would be positive, holding out hope that for once, a mission would go smoothly...